His Worries
by Saya-Sama
Summary: What happens to a country when it's dissolved, anyway? Does it die, or just wander off? Germany Prussia post-WWII


**Written for Kivaember and Kapusta17 on LJ, both of whom asked for Germany and Prussia after the dissolution of Prussia.**

Prussia had, for all intents and purposes, become defunct after the Enabling Act. "The marriage of old Prussia and new Germany" they'd said as they celebrated, which Ludwig still considers a tragic choice of words because clearly he and his brother cannot be wed (who would wear the dress?), and Gilbert finds it terribly insulting that they'd called him old. (Gilbert also feels that the celebration of their union was just a _tad _late, but hey, it was an excuse to party all over again, so he didn't complain too much.)

Despite that Prussia still remains, at least in name, Prussia. It doesn't act as a free state anymore, but legally it still exists and that is enough. Or was.

But now—_Now_—

What happens when a country was officially dissolved, anyway? What happened to any of the countries that had disappeared? Germany has never seen Rome or Germania, and no one would tell him what happened to the Holy Roman Empire. Is there somewhere on Earth they all go to in order to live out their eternal lives? Do they live for as long as they are remembered? Or do they just die, disappear and leave nothing behind? Ludwig doesn't know, and he doesn't want to find out.

Yet as far as anyone knows, he's fine with the Allies' decision. At the very least he does not seem upset by it. But the few who know him, who know all the little nuances of his personality, they know that he is now fairing well. Feliciano is smiling a bit too hard at him these days, forcing himself to be more exuberant, like his care-free attitude is some sort of disease that Ludwig can catch. He sort of wishes he could just breathe in Feliciano's cheer sometimes. Nothing can help though, the Allies want Prussia dissolved and Germany is in no place to stop them.

Okay, so Prussia was a bit strict in the past, but was it really so militant that it had to be dissolved? And maybe Gilbert himself tends to be annoying and obnoxious and maybe he does have an inflated ego, but does he really deserve to be exiled, or killed, or whatever it is that happens to countries that get dissolved?

As the day of reckoning comes ever nearer, Ludwig starts to visibly come undone. His people are feeling particularly anti-Prussian at the moment, they seem to think Prussians are just born militant and warlike, they think Prussians need to be taught peace the same way one teaches a child his letters. But Ludwig, he can't imagine a peaceful Gilbert, he doesn't think he wants a normal older brother. How odd would it be if Gilbert became calm, and mature, and, and _nonaggressive_? Even if they change the country, Ludwig is certain that won't change his brother.

In any case, Ludwig is just as hesitant to dissolve Prussia as his country is, but for different reasons. He is more than just the personification of a nation, after all, he can feel beyond the scope of what his countrymen feel. He is human, almost. Gilbert has always been his big brother, he doesn't want to lose that person who has taken care of him since the beginning, when he first woke up to this world feeling older than his years and knowing nothing except for the warmth of the hand that held his—waiting, waiting for him to wake up, to exist as something new and beautiful.

"You're coming apart at the seams, _Brüderchen_." Gilbert is sprawled over the living room couch, a beer in one hand, the other dangling over the side. For a minute Ludwig wonders just why he worries about this free-loading drunk.

"I am not." He is, and Gilbert gives him a look that says he knows as much.

"Come 'ere," Gilbert calls in his "big brother" voice, the one that he has used less and less as the years piled up, since Ludwig started growing into a responsible (stiff), mature (bossy) person. The younger brother makes a face, feeling somewhat patronized by the tone. He does what he's told anyway, and moves toward the couch. He is quickly pulled off his feet by Gilbert's free hand and ends up toppling onto his brother, who miraculously doesn't spill his beer.

He tries to get up or at least prop himself up on his arms, but Gilbert has put his drink down in favor of keeping Ludwig's face buried in his shoulder.

"Okay, so what have you been over-analyzing in that big head o' yours?" He asks, running his hands over Ludwig's back the same way he used to when he was still a kid. They haven't acted this way for years; it makes Ludwig wonder if he's really been behaving in such a worrisome manner.

"What happens to countries that disappear? You know what happened to Germania and the Holy Roman Empire, don't you? What happened then?" He feels like a child asking this, it feels like something he should know for himself already. The hands on his back stop moving for a second, then resume their previous motion; it's slower this time, the movement is pensive.

"Well, I dunno about Germania, personally I think he went off with that Roman bastard somewhere when his house was destroyed."

So they just ran off together, in Gilbert's expert opinion? Ludwig snorts; he highly doubts that, from what he knows of history those two hadn't exactly been on good terms in the end.

"And Holy Roman Empire?"

"That guy? He's still around. He's changed, he's changed a lot, so much so that he's not even really himself anymore, but he's around." Ludwig gives Gilbert a stern look, he wants a clear answer, not some vague explanation that doesn't really answer anything. Gilbert looks at his expression, ever so similar to a certain ex-nation's, and laughs a bit. "Well, maybe he hasn't changed so much, really."

Ludwig feels like he's missing something.

Gilbert laughs again at Ludwig's confused face and kisses his forehead like he used when they were younger. Now Ludwig feels extremely small and childish, which is ridiculous because he is both larger and more mature than his supposed older brother.

"I'll be fine, _Brüderchen_, don't worry."

000

The meeting was quick, just a few signatures and a mutual agreement that what was left of Prussia would be given to Germany. Prussia was really and truly and legally no longer a free state.

And Gilbert? Gilbert disappeared right after the meeting. No matter where Ludwig looked in the Kammergericht building, he simply could not find his brother. He checked every room multiple times, but there was no sign of him. No one knew where Gilbert had gone to or even when he'd left.

So it is with a heavy heart that Ludwig finally returns home after his futile search. He sighs as he walks through the front door and into the living room.

"Hey West, what took you so long to get home?"

Ludwig just stares for a moment as Gilbert grins at him, and then decides the wurst he's in the middle of eating needs to be further attended to. The younger German looks at how Gilbert is in his pajamas, once again drinking in the living room, this time helping himself to whatever happens to be around, and concludes that Gilbert has probably been here the entire time.

Ludwig runs up to his brother and promptly slugs him.

"You asshole! Who do you think you are, just _going home_ after something like that without saying anything?" '_Don't you realize how worried I was?'_ He hopes he doesn't have to say that out loud, he doesn't want to.

"What the hell West?" Gilbert shouts with a grimace; Ludwig punched him too hard, now it hurt to move his mouth! Ludwig doesn't reply and instead just punches him again. It turned into a small scuffle on the living room couch. Gilbert's wurst was tragically forgotten.

It is unusually easy to exhaust Ludwig today; the relief he's feeling now that he knows his worries were unfounded has weakened him. When the fighting finally settled down, the two are on the floor, Ludwig with his hands fisted in the front of his brother's shirt.

Gilbert sees it now, in the hunched figure that suddenly looks small again, the relief that is washing away the worry. Letting his indignant expression fade, he places his hands over Ludwig's; they are a bit rougher and smaller, he thinks it's a shame that Ludwig outgrew him.

"What a troublesome brother you are," he says, which earns him a scowl.

"_I'm _troublesome?" Ludwig asked incredulously, but he was quickly ignored.

"But don't worry, because big brother Gilbert will keep you out of trouble ."

"_You're_ always the one in trouble!" Gilbert is clearly not listening at this point, as a matter of fact he's saying something about how he only gets into trouble because other nations were jealous of some quality of his or other. Ludwig sighs, and wonders once again why he'd ever thought he needed to worry about his brother.

**1. Prussia was dissolved on February 25th, 1947, by the Allied Control Council because "Prussiadom" was considered to be synonymous to Militarism and Authoritarianism. Of the four nations on the Council, Russia was the only one who was fine with Prussia staying Prussia. **

**2. At the end of WW2, everything east of the Oder-Neisse Line went to Poland, and the northern third of East Prussia went to the Soviet Union. All of Germany's territorial losses in WW2 were Prussian territory. **

**3. The Allied Control Council was based in Berlin-Schöneberg, and operated from the Kammergericht Building, which was the old supreme court building for Prussia.**

**4. Prussia the kingdom had already been dissolved in 1918 after the Treaty of Versailles and was replaced with the Free State of Prussia.**

**6. Germany was feeling particularly Anti-Prussian after the war, as were the Allies. People thought Prussians needed to be reeducated in the ways of peace, or else they'd start another war the minute the Allies looked away. **


End file.
